This famous line from the Scottish poet Robert Burns' poem, "To a mouse," is often "translated" into modern English as "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." And that is your prompt for this week! Write about (or art about) a plan that went awry. This can be a personal plan, something completely made-up, or an historical event. Obviously, this premise is the basis of much literature, art, TV, and films, from the story of Icarus to every episode of the TV show Fa

After reading Mary Biddinger's wonderful poem, "Saint Monica Burns It Down," published in Valparaiso Poetry Review and posted today on my...

This week's prompt is easy for any writer or artist: you are asked to make a list. For poets, this means a List Poem. History is full of...

Your prompt for this week popped into my head as I looked for a poem to post today from Robert Wood Lynn's incredible collection, Mothman...

Craig Santos Perez is one of the best poets writing environmentally-aware poetry these days. His poem posted on my blog today, "Love in a...

The last poems posted on my blog, prior to today's post, are all serious and intense and powerful. Each one tells a bit of a woman's...

I have been very interested in aubades lately--both reading and writing them. I think what is drawing me to them is all of the...

For your inspiration this week, take a headline from the news--don't read the article (unless you really, really want to) and use the...

Today's blog poem, A.E. Stringer's "Sunday Morning, Cumberland Gap" conjures up both movement (through space and through time) and...

Louise Glück died on Friday, October 13, 2023, at the age of 80. She grew up in Hewlett, a Nassau County hamlet on Long Island. She...

As usual (although not always), this week's prompt takes its cue from today's blog poem, Middle-Aged Karaoke by Timothy Houghton. But you...

Two choices this week . . . or combine this two things for more of a challenge! Choice one: describe the end of a storm as Jean Toomer...

Philosophy is a school subject that is relevant in our everyday lives, whether or not we realize it. (They all are, of course, but some...

"I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am."...

Mad Libs gave me and my brother a lot of silly fun as we sat in the backseat of the blue Plymouth Fury with my parents up front. More...

Anniversary Alert: Phillis Wheatley's book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published on September 1, 1773....

Using the Ed Ochester poem posted today on my blog as inspiration, write a poem (or write some prose, or paint, or sculpt, or draw, or...

Today's posted poem is "Diary of a Carpenter Wasp" by Gary L. McDowell. His chapbook also includes poems about mosquitos and birds, and...

Yes, it has been done before, and not only by Jane Yolen! Lots of writers and visual artists have depicted what really happens after...

Yes, a sontina. It is a form of poetry that I invented. As far as I know, the poem I posted on my blog today, Xarpo, is the only sontina...